Kazaa to delay Australian court proceedings until US case concludes

February 10, 2004

spudda, Quakester2000 and GristyMcFisty all reported to
us that Kazaa, one of the world's largest file-sharing networks, has today
attempted to delay
proceedings for alleged copyright
breaches brought against them by the Australian record
industry.

Kazaa has
asked for a delay because it first wants to wait until a similar case in
the United States is finalised. Last week the
Australian Federal Court gave five major
Australian record labels permission to raid 12 premises in three states to
collect evidence against Kazaa:

"These proceedings, if they are to go ahead at all, ought not to
go ahead until the end of the American proceedings," counsel for Sharman
Networks, Francis Douglas, QC, said.

Outside the court, the trial lawyer in
the US case, David Casselman, said the record labels wanted another
opportunity to sue Kazaa after losing hearings in the US and the Netherlands.

"Now that they're losing in the United
States they seek to come here and fight the same battle on Australian
soil," he said.

Mr Casselman said suing Kazaa for breach
of copyright would be no different to taking legal action against the
producers of photocopiers.

"It's no different than the Xerox
corporation when students use their copiers and they know that students
use their copiers to make photocopies of protected works," he said.

The legal case has been adjourned until
February 20. You can read more on this over at Australian IT and The
Register.

Source: Australian IT